The natural resource agencies will oversee the fire weather observation
program, including the siting and maintenance of the observing equipment,
fire weather training of their personnel, and the proficiency of
their personnel in the use of the NWS Spot software.

The natural resource agencies may, from time to time, advise the
NWS of new technologies being implemented to monitor meteorological
or fuel parameters, or to improve communication, coordination, training
or reference. Natural resource agency personnel may, with prior
arrangement, visit an NWS office to acquire a knowledge of NWS technologies
used in the monitoring of weather, or the preparation of products.

Internet will be the primary method of obtaining the Fire Weather
Forecast, Red Flag Warning, Fire Weather Watch, and for both requesting
and receiving a Spot Forecast. As a backup method, a request can
be made to the NWS for a product to be faxed to the customer agency.
NFDRS observations will be entered into WIMS, and forecasts and
calculations based on these observations will be received by WIMS,
or by internet via a WIMS website.

Fire weather observation stations provide the specialized weather observations for fire weather forecasts, wildfire control and suppression, and various other land management operations. These stations were selected very carefully in each state and federal district. Sites were chosen to represent homogeneous weather conditions across a district. Stations may either be manned sites operated by land management agencies, or unmanned, Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS) maintained by any of the federal or state land management agencies in the area.

All observation stations are assigned a 6-digit identification/location
number. The first two digits indicate the state, the second two
digits indicated the county, and the last two digits indicated the
consecutively-assigned station number for that county. Land managers
who wish to have a number assigned to a station should contact the
GACC meteorologist at SACC in Atlanta.

RAWS stations are also assigned an 8 character alphanumeric identifier
based on satellite transmission time. The NESDIS ID, transmit channel
and time are assigned by the US Forest Service National RAWS program.

Observations from a satellite telemetered RAWS will automatically
flow into WIMS via the NESDIS ID. The RAWS owner may enter WIMS and manually change
a recorded observation (a type R ob) to an observed observation (a type
O ob), to enter the state of the weather. Otherwise, software will automatically employ the Nelson Algorithm to determine the state of the weather, and the observation will remain a type R. Any observation for which no 1300 LST data is available will use the 1200 LST data, and will remain a type R observation, with no state of the weather encoded.

Even with automated state of the weather in observations, the responsibility still rests with the RAWS owner to ensure that observations are being transmitted, recorded, and archived properly in WIMS. The additional automation will greatly simplify the daily process, however there will still be the need for observations to be checked for integrity and consistency. Managing the NFDRS model parameters will still be manual process in WIMS. Automation of state of the weather will help streamline the WIMS collective that is distributed to the NWS via AWIPS. NFDRS forecasts are based on RAWS observations that appear on the daily collective.

Sensor failure will often result in erroneous or (at best) suspicious values. If the NWS becomes aware of such a situation, it is prudent to contact the station owner. Similarly, if a station owner becomes aware of sensor failure, he should relay that information to the appropriate NWS office. It is that stations owner's responsibility to make sure that their station is and remains in good working order and that repairs are made in a timely manner. Owners of NFDRS stations can still (and should) correct any errors in their respective observations.

The user agencies are also responsible for maintaining observation
site equipment. NWS personnel may accompany the user on maintenance
trips or for annual inspection visits, which could also serve as
liaison with the users.

The responsibility of training natural resource agency employees
will be that of the agencies themselves. However, the NWS will be
available to assist when requested to do so. Any expenses incurred
by the NWS will normally be charged to the user agency, unless other
arrangements have been made.